Electrical engineer 'glmory' was experimenting with an Arduino board and some generators, and came up with the idea of driving one as a motor using the Arduino to control the phases and power circuitry. His generators were also home-made, with coils of over 400 turns of wire, and these were used as the motor coils for each phase. You have to congratulate the builder for going to the effort of making them himself and learning how they work, as the switching circuitry can be quite tricky. Evidence of this success is shown in the video below:

You can follow the project and related spin-offs (!) on the Arduino forum and project page. And we're on twitter and Google+, so follow us for news and product updates as well.

If you're making a similar project and need to control large currents with your Arduino digital outputs - you'll need a MOSFET. We've got you covered with out NDRIVE: N-MOSFET driver/output module:

This high-power N-MOSFET module lets you switch high-current loads using a tiny microcontroller. Perfect for controlling that set of traffic lights mounted in your living room! Works brilliantly for automotive projects such as switching high-power 12V lights and high wattage LEDs. For more information and to order, visit the product page.